Alliance News
Issue 3 Fall 2013
High School Golf
Of all the great things the girls have
learned and grown from, Coach Craig’s favorite
is when he sees a player’s commitment to
improving. He claims “I really enjoy it when a
player makes the transition from ‘golf team as
a social club’ to enjoying teammates but also
really wanting to improve.”
By Lexus Robinson, PWGA Intern and former High
School player.
Each fall thousands of high school students all
over the country take a big step in their life and try
out for clubs or sports teams. In recent years, the
sport that has gained the most attention has been
Girl’s Golf.
I interviewed a few high school golf coaches and
asked them what the game of golf meant to their girls
and to them. Craig Daniels, the Girls Golf Coach of
Woodcreek High School and my former coach, told me
he has seen several kinds of growth on his team over
the seasons. He said “Usually I see friendships grow,
and I encourage this because once a girl has some
friends on the team she tends to stay involved.” I’ve
personally met some of my best friends through the
high school golf program, and we still keep in contact
and play rounds of golf together today. It’s always an
exciting experience when you get to travel to
tournaments in the school van and know that you will
be playing with someone that you have bonded with.
But besides making good friends and creating longlasting friendships, the players grow individually as
the season rolls on.
The game of golf also instills values and
morals in you. It’s a great vehicle for life
lessons, especially dealing with pressure,
nerves, stress and competition. Everyone faces
these situations in life and Coach Daniels from
Woodcreek and Coach Tomasetti from Red
Bluff strive for their girls to learn how they
react in situations and how they could react
better. Craig strongly believes in the values of
golf and claims that “The core values of First
Tee are tremendous in this area.”
In addition to learning fundamentals of the
golf swing and the game, The First Tee’s
Character Education and Life Skills programs
help young people prepare for success in high
school, college and life. The First Tee’s Youth
Leadership & Curriculum focuses on how to
manage emotions, how to set goals, how to
resolve conflicts, how to introduce themselves,
and how to communicate effectively with
others, while teaching them the nine core
values: Honesty, integrity, sportsmanship,
respect, confidence, responsibility,
perseverance, courtesy, and judgment.
Craig told me that he also sees growth in playing
ability: “Hopefully everyone improves at least one or
two areas of their game. I often see growth in comfort
level being on the course actually playing, typically
going from practice rounds among teammates to JV
matches with girls from other schools to eventually
varsity matches (higher level of competition and
therefore greater need to manage emotions, deal with
nerves, etc.)
High School Golf continued page 5
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